MUSIC

Ionia debuts in Arkansas

— Ionia, known to its fans as a “melodic indie post-hard-core band,” will headline the “Wintour 2013,” which is stopping off this evening at the Downtown Music Hall, along with Saint Diablo. Jennifer “Jenncity” Arroyo will host the event, which is a presentation of Stand and Deliver Records.

Ionia took its name from a place where lead singer Blaise Beyhan grew up.

“It was a macrobiotic community in Alaska,” Beyhan says. “Plus the word is mentioned in Carl Sagan’s book The Cosmos, and is a fictional world that has one continent with artistic freedom. That’s our idea, to align ourselves and socialize our egos.”

Based in New York, Ionia has opened for many high-profile bands, including Buckcherry, Alice in Chains, Hawthorne Heights, Kill Hannah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Smile Empty Soul, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Puddle of Mudd, We Came as Romans, Close to Home, I See Stars, blessthefall, The Devil Wears Prada, Falling in Reverse and Chiodos. The band has performed on the Warped Tour and at Rockapalooza, the CMJ conference, Taste of Chaos and the Dewey Beach Music Conference.

Ionia - which has been compared on the reverbnation.com site to My Chemical Romance, Rise Against, Thrice, Brand New and Silverstein - consists of five musicians: Beyhan on vocals, Freddy Epps on bass and vocals, Kyle Walters on guitar, Omer “Ome” Wald on guitar and Curtis Collazo on drums.

“I’d say our influences include The Deftones, Bob Dylan, Nine Inch Nails, Tool and Elliot Smith,” Epps says. “We’re not writing party songs, but what some would call post-hardcore, or darker sounds.”

Like many bands making a name for themselves, Epps says members still have “day jobs” such as bartending and waiting tables that permit them to venture beyond the New York area. Epps says that Ionia has been to the West Coast a couple of times and most of the lower 48 states. The show tonight in Little Rock will mark the band’s first visit to Arkansas.

The band has been fortunate, Epps says, in encountering other musicians sharing positive energy.

“We believe in brotherhood and we’re all struggling and trying to help each other,” he says. “When the shows are done, we like to get together and hang out. And what keeps us moving forward is trying to raise awareness of what frustrates us and what we are personally in touch with.

“We want people to question the world around them, to discover the truth for themselves, not what the mainstream would have them believe. That’s why we do music.”

Ionia is at work with producer Mike Sapone on its next album, scheduled to be released later this year. The band released Moral Hazard in 2010.

Ionia

Opening act: Saint Diablo

6 p.m. today, Downtown Music Hall, 211 W. Capitol Ave., Little Rock

Admission: $10 advance; $12 day of show

(501) 376-1819

downtownmusichall.com

Style, Pages 34 on 02/12/2013

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